Christmas madness 2008

I had to do some more Christmas shopping yesterday. I didn't want to, not because I don't want to give presents, but because at this time of year, it's all about fighting your way through crowds of ill-tempered, stressed-out people. Elder Daughter used to get most annoyed with me whenever we went shopping together, as I used to insist on going early in the day to avoid the crowds. "Mother!" she once said, completely exasperated, "If there are more than nine people in the shop, you think it's crowded!"
However, yesterday morning, I was counselling, so I didn't get out until lunch-time. Off I trundled into town to find not one free parking space in the central car parks, so I decided to cut my losses and go and park in the Matalan car-park. (Yes, I did go into Matalan as well, so I was parked legitimately.) On my way home I passed a lengthy traffic queue, not queueing to get into Tesco but waiting on the road to get into the queue for Tesco's car park!
It was December 12th, almost a fortnight before Christmas Day, or have I done a Rip van Winkle and slept through the final run up to the big day?